April 5, 2011

There is a growing political push to have the United Nations General Assembly — this September — declare the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as a sovereign Palestinian state, shaped along 1967 border lines, with or without Israel’s consent.

I’m John Loeffler at steelonsteel.com and here’s how it seems to me.

We constantly hear that Israel occupies Palestinian territory in contravention to international law. But UN Resolution 242 only requires Israel to withdraw from some territory it occupies once final borders have been established and they never have been.

In 1948, The UN partitioned Palestine into Israel and Trans-Jordan, which was to be the home for Palestinians. Israel did not even control Jerusalem under this arrangement.

But the Arab countries didn’t like partition so they attacked Israel, threatening to annihilate the new Jewish state.

When the war ended in 1949, an armistice was signed whereby temporary borders, called armistice lines, were drawn up. The final borders were to be determined by negotiation.

But the Arab countries refused to ever negotiate, so the armistice lines remained.

That was until 1967, when Syria, Jordan and Egypt attacked Israel, once again losing control of areas to Israel, namely East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Once again, the temporary armistice lines moved.

But suddenly we had this thing called Palestinian territory. Now where did that come from? It used to be occupied by Jordan, not by a Palestinian government. There has never been a Palestinian state other than Jordan.

The Oslo peace process was trying to hammer out final borders and create a new Palestinian state.

But the Oslo talks are now dead and the push has begun to force 1967 borders on Israel. If it succeeds, Israel will then be guilty of occupying sovereign territory of a member country, incurring the wrath of the world. It remains to be seen where the Obama administration will come down on this issue.